Distant Memories
by changed currents
Summary: [same AU as Fading, short oneshot] A normal morning for Yuuto, interrupted by a bittersweet surprise.


**Well, I felt like writing more XYZ stuff...so here. I promise, another chapter of Disturbance should be up by Christmas, along with small request chapters for Collection. So if you feel like requesting some kind of drabble, go review Collection.**

 **Same AU as Fading, where Yuuto actually has parents.**

 **Review?**

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Sunlight streamed through the curtains, curtains that he should've closed last night, but had forgotten to.

It took some time getting used to the fact that no one would be there to remind or nag him about doing certain things. Usually, it would be his mother, coming in after he'd settled himself in the bed and closing the curtains, kissing him on the forehead and wishing him a good night. He had treasured those times before, and wished for them to happen again now.

Yawning, he sat up, back resting against his pillows as he wrapped his arms around his knees. The white cotton sheets contrasted greatly from his black pajamas, with the only light in the room coming from the window. Dust was sent flying as he shook out his sheets, wrapped himself in a fleece blanket, and got up from bed.

Autumn was falling in Heartland, and there were evident signs of it. Leaves in different shades of red and orange swirled around in bursts of wind, flying across the concrete sidewalks among the driveways of homes.

Padding downstairs, Yuuto deposited the blanket on a wooden chair and set the kettle on the stove, sparking the flame with a quick turn of his wrist. He opened the fridge, found a bowl of leftover rice porridge, and began heating it in a pot, stirring it occasionally with a spoon.

He had no school today, seeing as it was a weekend. All his homework was done and ready to be turned in, and Yuuto had the whole day to himself. Shun and Ruri were going on a trip outside the walls with their parents for a family weekend, and Kaito was across the city, with his mentor Chris Arclight, or V.

The kettle whistled, a high-pitched whine like a baby wanting to be fed, and Yuuto turned off the flame, took the kettle by the handle, and poured the steaming liquid into a teapot filled with black tea leaves. His favorite mug, one with the mosaic patterns of Dark Requiem's wings, warmed as the hot liquid was poured into the depths.

Wrapping his hands around the mug and taking his pot of rice porridge to the wooden dining table, Yuuto snuggled into the fleece blanket and picked up the laptop on the counter, immersing himself in the early morning ritual of flipping through videos left on the files of the computer. It was fun, and slightly bittersweet at the same time. His parents had taken tons of pictures and videos of him as a child, intent on showing him once he'd grown up. They'd only gotten through about 20 of the 100 ten to thirty-minute long videos on the computer before the accident.

Taking a small sip from the mug, Yuuto clicked on the one he'd been halfway through the previous night. It was him at about four or five years old, when his parents had taken him to a place outside the walls where it snowed, unlike in Heartland. His little five year old body was sliding across the fluffy white powder on a little plastic sled his father had purchased for him, a smile on his toddler face all the while.

The video ended with a close-up shot of his mother hoisting him into her arms, young Yuuto cradling a snowball in his own hands as she did.

Yuuto smiled softly, remembering the distant memory of slapping the snowball onto his father's cheeks, before hitting the right arrow key on the keyboard and playing the next video.

A doorbell echoed through the house, along with a soft knocking.

Setting down his spoon, Yuuto got up and dropped the blanket back onto his chair, heading to the door. He peered through the peephole before opening the door, finding a surprise on his doorstep, along with a blast of cold autumn wind.

"Haruto? Shouldn't you be with Kaito?"

The little brother of Tenjo Kaito looked up at him with innocent eyes before shoving a package into his hands and running back down the walkway to meet the youngest Arclight brother, who waved at Yuuto before disappearing down the street.

Yuuto looked down at the package in his hands. It was a simple cardboard box, and the packaging slip was addressed to him, from his mother.

His heart stopped.

Yuuto closed the door, back slipping down the cold wood into a sitting position, peeling the tape away with his fingers. There was a layer of bubble wrap, before he reached the actual item.

It was a diary, leather-bound and with a little purple ribbon as a bookmark. The sticker on the front had his mother's name written on it, in a neat cursive script. Inside was a year's worth of diary entries, all while he was a year old. A memory diary, of his younger years, for when he couldn't remember them now.

The mug of tea was abruptly picked up, as well as the bowl of rice porridge, as Yuuto disappeared back into his room, laptop and childhood diary in tow.

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 **Short and...I dunno.**

 **Review...?**


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